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DHS Secretary: Congress Still Needs to Allocate Funds for Border Wall

December 14, 2017

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said Congress still needs to allocate funding for construction of a wall along America's southern border with Mexico.

Nielsen spoke with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade as they walked along the border during her first week in the new role.

Nielsen and Kilmeade visited an area where a newer section of border wall was recently built in the Rio Grande Valley border patrol sector in Texas. Nielsen spoke about the department's priorities, and what needs to happen in order to effective implement those priorities.

"We've got to keep pressing Congress to get us that funding we requested in [fiscal year 2018]. ... It's gonna be a big two weeks," Nielsen said.

The secretary said the "wall" was composed of more than the physical wall, and is in fact three different components: the physical barrier, technology and personnel.

When Nielsen was sworn into office last week, President Donald Trump said the construction of the wall was a priority for the department.

"If we don't get the wall, you're gonna have a lot of very unhappy people, starting with me," Trump said. "We're gonna get the wall."

Nielsen previously served as White House deputy chief of staff, and before that, as chief of staff to then Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson (R., Wis.) noted she had worked "in and around" DHS since its formation.